Monthly Reflection

PURIM/PASSOVER

Purim—-For such a time as this… The book of Esther records the institution of the annual festival of Purim and keeps alive for later generations the memory of the great deliverance of the Jewish people during the reign of Achashverosh. Just as G-d had a plan to save the Jewish people in Babylonia through Mordecai and Esther, He has a plan to reconcile the world to Himself and He has a part for each one of us to fulfill.

Passover—-On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb… The lamb is the focus of Passover. In fact, the lamb is Passover. The Hebrew word “Pesach,” which is translated as Passover is not used by the Scriptures to refer to the holiday as is commonly thought, but specifically speaks of the lamb itself. Without the killing of the lamb and the subsequent application of its blood to the doorposts of Jewish homes the firstborn in Israel along with those in Egypt would have perished. Without the lamb there would have been no Exodus. The lord was seeking to impress upon Israel the foundational aspect of the lamb. Israel would look back through the pages of redemptive history and see that it was central to everything G-d would ever say and do. Yeshua is “the lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8) as He would be progressively revealed to the nation through the prophets.

Three Reasons Why Israel Missed the First Coming of the Messiah:

First Century Judaism was preoccupied with concepts of Messiah as King-Deliverer. Roman occupation provided the “perfect storm” for which to see Messiah as only a Rescuer. Their “apocalyptic consciousness” caused them to be inundated with thoughts of deliverance and even how to inaugurate that deliverance, therefore, they missed the office of Messiah as Suffering servant and sin-bearer.

First Century Judaism found no place for the priestly office of Messiah. As rabbinic tradition teaches, it is completely within the power of each to wholly overcome sin and gain eternal life by study and good works. Original-Sin and the Total Depravity of the human nature are not in Jewish thought processes. Whatever happened in the garden, say the rabbis, was not bad enough to warrant the need for a “Second Adam” to come and undo what the first Adam could not. If our condition is not that bad, than “Savior” terminology makes no sense in Jewish thinking. Original sin and the sinfulness of our whole nature is a fundamental difference between rabbinic Judaism and Scripture.

The problem of rabbinic authority: the claim of the rabbis to establish their own authority by stating that the Oral Law goes back to Moses so that the Oral Law has more authority than the Written Law. Rabbinical authority supersedes the authority of the Word of God, so when the Spirit convicts or brings enlightenment to the original meaning of the text it is dismissed in favor of halachic ruling.

– adapted from Nathaniel Puro, congregational leader Shoresh David

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